Chapter 5 – Important Things

"Spike…" Came the voice that Spike heard every day for the last two years. He sighed, scratching his nose as it twitched irritably. The fly that danced on it remained. He sighed.

"Yeah?" He turned slowly to the girl he had been teaching. She had grown, Morris could see. She now held a more mature stance than his previous encounter with her. The recklessness she had once had was now calmed, the energy in her eyes dulled, though some fire remained.

"… I don't think I can have the lesson today. I've got… an appointment." She said nervously. Spike looked up lazily to the roof, raising a pencil and preparing to throw.

"It's that boy, isn't it?" He said, smirking as he did. "That weirdo from Tokyo. The one with the crazy eye. He'll do you no good, Nature Girl." The pencil thudded into the ceiling as Spike leaned forward mischievously. "It's that kind of date that tends to be the most fun." The girl smiled with him as he pointed to the door. "Go on. And if your father asks, I'm ill, ok? And if your older brother asks, your date had something in his eye."

The girl ran off with an all new spark. Spike sat back. He had always enjoyed making people smile. Morris looked around. He peered into the darkness and saw a shadow.

"You're right when you say it'll do her no good, Spike." Morris placed the voice immediately. And, as Jinrei stood forward seemingly to confirm Morris's theory, Morris clenched his fist.

So Jinrei was in on these crazy vision quests I'm having! Well, he'll get what's coming to him. Morris thought, scowling dangerously and desperate to wake and ask the old man a few questions. And how the hell does he still look over hundred? He must be older than the sun.

"She's still listening, you know." Spike said, still smiling, completely unfazed by anything, it seemed.

"She mustn't let him into her heart." Jinrei answered. "He's pure evil. You know better than anyone."

"So what if she grows to love him? So what if it does her no good?" Spike said. "No love's done anyone any good. It's just a force of nature. As futile as lust, power or sympathy. It's a feeling. Nothing more." He sighed, looking to the door. "She's still young, still doesn't know the real things in life. Let her have her fun." Morris was amazed as to what he saw across Spike's face. Emotion. It was a rare thing for Spike to show, and Morris had barely once seen it. But now, Spike showed what was past the mask of permanent smiles and smirks. A lonely and sympathetic man, only wanting the best from all. He paused for a small while, and carried on.

"Yes, you're right." He said. "Yes, he's a bad person for her to be near, and yes, he will cause her pain. Though what of it? She'll be happy with him, and that's all that matters anyway."

"Happiness? That's all you think there is?" Jinrei went into an outburst. "You don't think there's anything more?"

A pause.

"There's nothing more important." Spike finally answered. "All other things are helpful. None are essential. And that is all. If she dies young, she shall die happily if I have any say in it." He looked to Jinrei. "Please, don't ruin another person's life just to end one loose end. She doesn't deserve it." Jinrei sighed to this.

"There can't be another Jinpachi, Spike. I shall leave you now." And, with that, Jinrei followed the girl out of the door. Spike sighed.

"That's what I mean." Then the smirk came back as he looked to the ceiling. "Miserable old bastard. And don't think he was young once, Morris. He was born that old."

"I can imagine." Morris answered. Then he noticed something. He looked to Spike dead on in the face. "You can see me."

"Of course I bloody well can." He said. "I can smell you, at any rate. Get a wash once in a while. You're not even born and already you stink the place up like Pepe Le Pew."

"How?" Morris fell onto his behind as Spike stood tall. Morris could barely remember the last conversation he had with his beloved uncle. He was sure it must be more than a decade from now. Spike shrugged his shoulders.

"Buggered if I know. Magic? Relationship? I was hoping you'd answer that, Morris." Morris tried to think of a reply, though the shock of realising just how real his dream was, just how close he was to Spike after years of distance, felt like a shotgun shell to the stomach.

"So, is this a dream, or have I time travelled?" Morris asked. Spike looked out of the window. He rested his arms on the window pane. Morris joined him. Spike sighed heavily, prompting Morris took look. "Uncle Spike, please."

"I never thought I'd be called that, not even by…" Then Spike's eyes widened. "Oh, of course! It would be!" He literally leaped over to the desk and began to scribble quickly. "I'm not sure, so you must do this for me, for your sake. This note I'm writing, you'll find it in the bar of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Don't, under any circumstances, read it. Ask the barman to open safe B3, combination ac4, c2, ac7, c1, and give it to your room mate. I'll take a guess as to who it is, and if I'm right, you're in trouble."

"Why?" Morris felt the urgency of the situation and danger to him was a MAJOR problem in his view.

"I'm not sure why." Spike said. "I'll just find out later." He looked to the window. "I've just got an idea." He looked to Morris. "And how does my life turn out?" Morris gulped. He really didn't want to tell, but he knew he couldn't forgive himself for saying it.

"Your diamond thievery is stopped, you escape instantly and aren't seen or heard from for years." He finally answered after an internal struggle. Spike gulped. "I told the police that you were a diamond thief." Morris added as Spike's face snapped into a spasm of pain and betrayal.

"So…" He said. "Why do you tip off the police?" He finally asked Morris. Morris bowed his head. He knew this would come. At least he'd tell somebody who'd understand. He never told Asuka the real reason he left England, and hoped he wouldn't have to. He tried to choke the crying back.

"Because…" He felt tears roll down his face. " – because you killed my mum."

Spike dropped his arms in horror, the note he held falling to the floor, his eyes becoming rising suns of despair and disbelief unto themselves. Morris looked up. He wanted to tell Spike that he knew why now, that he understood, but the pain of Spike's reaction was unbearable to see, and to say why would be the death of him.

"Why would I?" Spike asked finally. Morris shook his head as he felt himself fade.

"I forgive you now, Uncle Spike." He said. "Because…"

Morris sat bolt upright as he awoke, tears rolling down his face and a breath stuck in his throat.

"– because…" He never finished. He sat still for the longest while, the silence echoing throughout the room. He looked over to the other bed. Asuka was still asleep, so Morris guessed it must be early. He stood up and walked out of the door. He turned around to see a large troop of staff, all staring in horror at him. Morris sighed as he too late realised what he had forgotten to do.

"Putting clothes on is an underrated practise." He murmured to himself as his cheeks burned red and he walked back in the apartment.

The rain that fell from the black clouds was vicious, smashing into the pebbles that Xiaoyu stood atop, looking around, waiting for her opponent. She slowed her breathing as the tension rose, clogging her neck. She knew what was coming. She knew the absurd skyscraper hairstyle, the patterned leather jacket, the roar of the beloved motorcycle. She looked to her opponent as he slowly emerged into the light, his unshaven face holding a smirk. Xiaoyu remembered that face as the face that stopped her from saving Jin. It was Paul Phoenix, the man who beat her at the final hurdle of the previous tournament.

"So, you came back. How did you lose this time, then?" Xiao asked, knowing that Paul, though he claimed to be the best fighter in the world, never actually won a tournament, usually due to unfortunate circumstances that always occurred, and man did he know it. He was considered jinxed by everyone on the fighting circuit, doomed never to win a tournament yet always winning fights.

"I fought Kazuya to a draw… AGAIN! It came down to a toss up and I chose tails. The stupid man couldn't flip it properly and I lost. But I'll win this time!" He shouted, punching the air above his head. Then Xiaoyu sniffed something odd. A smell that was somehow… pleasant. Xiaoyu put her head in one side.

"When did you start brushing your teeth?" She asked him. Paul waved his hand as her as if trying to swat a fly.

"Long and uncomfortable story, and while I remember, you might want to ask Bryan for your school uniform back." Xiaoyu opened her mouth to ask why, but Paul stopped her. "Seriously. Don't ask him about it."

"Fighters, are you ready?" Came the announcer's voice. Paul turned to the loud speaker.

"Just start, already!" Paul shouted. His wish was granted as the bell sounded. Paul started with a hammer to power punch, both of which Xiaoyu dodged with practised speed. The wind that slashed through the air was a knife blade as it passed by. Paul followed up his attacks with a low kick. He did not want to give Xiaoyu the pleasure of getting a chance to attack. He went into this battle deciding he would be persistent.

Damn, this is fast! Xiaoyu thought, spinning on her heel and cart wheeling away desperately. However, the pebbles beneath repeatedly gave way. Her feet fought for purchase on the unstable and weakened ground as it sank beneath them. I'm wasting all my energy doing this. I have to attack NOW! She threw her palm out in her trade-mark Bayonet Punch. However, it relied all too much on a firm grip on the ground and she fell. She realised all too late her mistake. Paul used easy, quick and untiring attacks constantly, waiting for her to desperately attack, and falter in the process. For a man with a brain with only three functions (being think about beer, think about shouting and think about foxy ladies)Xiaoyu had to admit that this was beyond good tactics. And then her punishment for her mistake began.

Paul knew all too well the dangers of allowing an opponent the chance to place a good hit. All too many fights have been lost by a cheap punch to the jaw and BAM! Four seconds and you're out. So Paul refused to relent as his foot drove into Xiaoyu's back like a jackhammer. She screamed and she whimpered and she cried about how unfair he was, but hey, she was only a schoolgirl, or least she looked like one. Paul allowed himself the pleasure to mentally repeat the events of the foyer meeting on the first fateful day of the tournament. Fur lined panties indeed! She couldn't be in high school, not at the ripe old age of nineteen!

Xiaoyu didn't not appreciate Paul's little giggle. God knows what he found so funny, but Xiaoyu refused to let herself be humiliated in public (even though her dress sense did that sufficiently on a daily basis). She clasped the attacking leg and drove it into Paul's hip joint. She heard the sharp snap of the cell membrane breaking and pressed on.

"Laugh it up!" She barked, driving the leg further into the joint. For all she cared, she would have snapped the bone and she wouldn't have noticed. No, she wanted Paul to say sorry. Paul then resisted, forcing the leg back into her. The stones parted beneath her feet and she was sent tumbling to the ground for a second time.

The two fighters got up together, smashing their heads together in a rather embarrassingly comical fashion. Xiaoyu was the latter of the two to recover, and man did Paul want her to know it, hammering her rib cage with a well placed stomach blow and rattling the organs almost out of place. Shock consumed Xiaoyu's body, so much so that the blow that sent her hurtling through the air was completely numbed. She spluttered her way onto her hands and knees as Paul approached slowly, careful not to fall, placing his feet lightly.

"I thought call girls weren't very good at fighting." Paul smirked his way through the insult, finally glad to place it somewhere. "I guess I was right, wasn't I?"

Xiaoyu's blood boiled. Her face went as red as the blood that seeped her nose. Morris! That bastard had a lasting effect, it seemed. The joke was still rank in her ears, a stinging joke that would never go away. Just like Morris himself, and not just because he smells worse than a turd spewed in vomit (Xiaoyu had spent many hours thinking of that one, hoping she could use it at some point, probably in front of him). It was the dogged tenacity of him. The persistent stubbornness that kept him coming back for more. That hammering he got from Julia could've killed him, and he pulled through somehow.

However, the one thing she hated about the insult was how Paul said it. As if it was fact. As if everyone knew it to be true. A tear welled as she batted it away. It trailed pathetically down her cheek. However, no others followed as they were choked back by a hard desperation and determination. Before, Panda and love for Jin were her motivations. However, with both of these, common sense shrouded them to black. She was a friend of the Mishima Zaibatsu, if her will had a price tag, she would have it fulfilled. Furthermore, she now had just about enough of people telling her that her love for Jin was just a high school crush, and that he was evil. Now she had something to fight for. She stood to her tallest, glaring at Paul.

"You're right in saying I'm no longer a school girl." She growled. Paul laughed at her attempt to be threatening. Then he choked as her hand smashed and clamped around his neck. She had been a good distance away, and suddenly her eyelashes brushed his as she snarled and stared. Her breath tasted of anger, of rage, like that of a furious animal. "Watch me grow up!"

The hammer blow Paul felt was a terrible tremor to his bones as he stooped his knees in pain, leaving himself open to the upcoming knee bash. Blood was drawn from his cheek as she forced him away. He looked to the glaring Xiaoyu, and for once considered her a woman rather than a girl.

Jesus MC Christ! He thought, tasting his own blood coming from the throbbing scar she had given him. This girl's gone Popeye the Sailor Man on me! Well, she'll have to do better than that! I've beaten her before; I'll show as hell do it again! He threw his fist for her, rising as he did. The punch found its target, but the rush of battle had left her standing. She grabbed the offending arm and twisted it violently.

The fury in the strikes that rose into Paul's back caused him to scream. He dropped to the floor, crawling away slightly for a chance to fight back. However, he knew it was a worthless effort. Xiaoyu had him now, and he felt the continued strikes fall down, his rage finally gave in. He had grown complacent during the fight, and now he had sunken into the pit that traps all too many fighters. A doubt. When the doubt hits you, you will not be able to continue. Paul felt one last foot strike onto his head and his vision faded to black.

Jinrei found Xiaoyu later. He barely recognised her without her pigtails. She had left the arena without a word. Everyone was silent when she walked through the changing room and into the gloomy rain. No sound was made. However, Jinrei had finally seen her by chance on a tall roof top. Where she stood, a tall and frightfully scorching fire blazed. He smelt the smell of burnt fabric. He looked to her in confusion. She didn't notice him.

"Xiao." He murmured, announcing his presence. Xiaoyu looked to him, and Jinrei nearly gasped at the angered expression on her face. Then he noticed the lack of her usual, distinguishing features. No eye shadow or make up of the kind. Her hair was no longer the pig-tailed neatened style he had grown accustomed to. Now it was loose, unruly and wild. Nothing to be expected, seeing as she had only just removed them seeing as it took not long for Jinrei to find her. Then there were the clothes. No pink. No frills. No fur. No school uniform. They were simplistic clothes, a shirt and some jeans. Nothing hip, nothing like Xiaoyu.

"Don't call me that." She said. "My school friends called me that when I was a child." Jinrei wondered what had brought this on. Had an acquaintance of hers from school offended her in some way, and forced her to hate them all. Then he looked to the bonfire. He recognised the items among the wreckage. They were her old clothes. Fur lined, checked, all that was associated with the young, carefree spirit that was Ling Xiaoyu. Then he realised.

"I have to beat Morris." She voiced his answer without prompting. "Not for Panda. Not for Jin. For me. For the world. To show that I've finally grown up." She looked to the fire. "And to beat him, I have to change what I am. I can't think about Jin or Panda everyday, as much as I care for them. No, this pest will be my worst nightmare if I'm not prepared, and until I become what I should've already become, I will never be prepared."

"Xiaoyu, change is nothing that occurs overnight." Jinrei began, but then he stopped. Xiaoyu's face had not changed, she had not stirred, yet Jinrei could see that her thoughts had hardened.

"No. But it has to start somewhere." She said. She held her the item she had held in her hand for the whole time. Jinrei saw them and gasped. Her panties, fur lined as Morris had indeed mentioned. Despite the silliness of them, they were beloved to her. To destroy these was to prove that she was finally letting go. She cast them into the flames furiously. "Let them burn!" She scowled.

Asuka watched all this on the bar's television screen. She sighed with relief to see Xiaoyu win. Though supporting her friend over her obstacles, knowing she's after Morris, was not easy, knowing that once Xiaoyu finally faced Morris that she would all her fury rain down on him like a torrent. And after seeing Julia's outburst towards him, with no good reason to actually hate him, suddenly Asuka felt a pang of pity, and started to even want Morris to win above Xiaoyu. Originally, her support for him was simply to help her beat Jin, how he did wasn't of any consequence. But now, she saw just how much the world was against him, and she couldn't help but sympathise.

"Hello." Came Morris' voice. Asuka turned around, glad to see him. Then she saw him, and regretted it. The sight of him was pitiful, paths that tears had travelled down painted across his face, his eyes watery pits of despair. He looked terrible, to say the least. A small dog in the corner whimpered mournfully. Morris looked to it, and smiled half-heartedly, bending down to it. "What are you so sad about, then?" The dog whimpered sympathetic, as if sad for Morris, who remained unfazed. Not cold, but just not showing any real emotion, a typical British reaction to anything. All the birds in the park opposite stopped fluttering joyfully and instead edged slowly toward the bar.

"Odd." Morris commented, sitting on the seat next to Asuka. He grinned merrily. "So, Asuka, on a scale on one to ten, how much to you want to get into my pants?"

"Morris, you look like shit." She replied. "What's wrong? Was it another nightmare?"

"Sort of. Actually, I smell like shit too, considering. I haven't showered in years. So, back to you, how's your life going?"

"Enough." Morris stopped at this. He looked into Asuka's eyes, and she stunned him with her stern distress for him. "You've had nightmares before and they haven't bothered you in the slightest until the mention of this 'Spike' guy. Why are you so shook up and pretending not to be?" He sighed when she asked him. Her eyes searched for an answer as he bowed his head slightly. A tear welled, but he batted it away.

"I shouldn't be, that's the thing." He said before long. "It's just… I've not been totally truthful to you before. There's another reason I left England. My mum died. And don't say sorry, ok? This happened ages ago, more than ten years, when I was young. I've long gotten over it." Morris looked blank for a small while, as if his mind was travelling. "At least I think so."

Asuka didn't reply. She couldn't. The bluntness of the statement, the emotionlessly vague explanation of past events, the gravity of the happenstance. She couldn't process the information. She knew that most people got over a death in the family fairly quickly. It's sad, it sinks in, and the pain fades. Though still, Asuka's brain could not understand how uncaring Morris seemed about the situation. And the blank stare afterward. It was hauntingly depressing. He acted as if it was a passing thing, an event which sinks painfully into your mind set then leaves as soon as it comes. But Asuka knew it must be more. Something about that had come back to haunt him, and she wanted to at the very least help.

"Christ, Morris, I... don't know what to say." She blurted out.

"No." Morris remained vacant. He seemed to have entered a completely different world. "I've asked myself that since I was eight, and I still don't." Asuka placed her hand on his shoulder. He smiled to her. She smiled back.

"Don't pretend not to be sad." She said, stroking his shoulder caringly. "It's only natural to be. And, how well you've handled it so far, I'm not sure how you cope. It'll only hurt more if you hold it back." Morris stared to her. "What?" She asked him as he seemed interested in a small detail on her face.

"You still haven't answered my question. Would you like to sleep with me?" Asuka rolled her eyes. Well, so much for not coping with it, Morris, she thought, though she remained silent. Then Morris snapped his fingers. "I almost forgot." He turned to the barman. "Could you open safeB3, the combination is four anti-clockwise, two clockwise, seven anti-clockwise and one clockwise." The barman raised an eyebrow.

"That account hasn't been opened in more than twenty eight years." The barman pointed out. Morris looked around.

"Oh, sorry, I was waiting for something for that to be relevant. Chop chop." He said. Asuka looked to him. "There's a letter for you. I'm not supposed to read it, so it was stuck in a safe." He received a brown envelope, having been browned by years of neglect. He handed it to Asuka, seemingly surprised. "Well, that proves it."

"Proves what?" She asked.

"I'm a time traveller!" Morris shouted, then he closed his eyes and crossed his fingers. Asuka raised her eyebrows. "Aaaaaaaaaaaand… 1959 Audrey Hepburn!" He shouted, looking to her excitedly. Asuka's jaw dropped. "Well, so what if I'm attracted to ridiculously super famous dream women? It was her or Ursula Undress…" The pause alone made Asuka smirk. The childish look on Morris' face told her what was coming.

"Yes, yes, or me, I know, I know." She pushed him away as he opened his mouth, carefully opening the letter. Then her jaw dropped…. Again. For in the neatest of handwriting were wrote the most worrying words she had ever seen, particularly words from twenty eight years ago.

Jinrei means Morris nothing but harm. KEEP AWAY FROM HIM!

Looking forward to hearing from you. Love and kisses.